Re: Calling the workforce "unqualified" shows a complete lack of the present working environement

Yes, I agree, many IT folks who work for the government are highly qualified but hamstrung by very complicated budget structures (or lack of it) and being spread extremely thin. It certainly doesn't help that the NSA's reaction to the Edward Snowden affair was to reduce IT staff by 90% to reduce the chance of additional data leaks.

Re: Calling the workforce "unqualified" shows a complete lack of the present working environement

The government needs contractors for short term "disposable" projects with an ending date. They need government employees for continuity of government. It's quite simple really. The government is not designed to be efficient, but safe, hence a three party check and balances system. In many cases the government employee is dealing with the bureaucracy and red tape, while the contractor is doing more operational work. Additionally, contractors are often brought in for higher risk projects as it can take years to punish or release a fed, but a contractor can be fired almost immediately. There must always be a federal employee monitoring the contactor's performance and ensuring the contractor did the work specified at the price specified. Add to this a government hiring freeze as noted with no training and you have a situation where agencies are hiring contractors instead of training their own staff or hiring more feds. Glad you find this amusing, as it is all our tax dollars (and laws our lawmakers have passed) which has led to this situation. While I will state some government employees are certainly unqualified, making sweeping statements about all such as yours are completely off-base without any research to site such as ISC2 does.

Re: Calling the workforce "unqualified" shows a complete lack of the present working environement

Wow I couldn't stop laughing at the previous post. Of course the government workers are "unqualified" otherwise why would they need contractors? The way it actually works is where we have one governament employee and then a contractor that does the actual work. The taxpayers get to pay for both. Please post more humor!

Calling the workforce "unqualified" shows a complete lack of the present working environement

The government does a great job in screening and hiring people; they just don't have enough. They often have to ask overworked professionals to perform jobs outside their skill base as a result. It is totally unfair for anyone to characterize these dedicated civil servants as incompetent. Furthermore, most civil servants are being asked to wear a dozen hats in these times of sequestration and hiring freezes. These folks have gone without pay raises and promotions for over 2 years now and are being asked to implement new mandates in addition to everything else they have on thier plates with often ZERO training budgets. I'd say they are doing pretty well all considered. Kudos to ISC2 for pointing out the pipeline issues with procurement and the overarching issues with accountability!

Thanks for the recap of the (ISC)2 report, Patience. I'm curious about whether the authorsoutlines how they would go about enforcing security accountability. Were audits recommended? And if so, by whom?

As InformationWeek Government readers were busy firming up their fiscal year 2015 budgets, we asked them to rate more than 30 IT initiatives in terms of importance and current leadership focus. No surprise, among more than 30 options, security is No. 1. After that, things get less predictable.